On Dec. 12, 2000 --- more than four years after the tragic crash of TWA 800 --- Jim Hall, chairman of the NTSB, sat uncomfortably across from Don and Donna Nibert. There was good reason for his discomfort. The Niberts, from Montoursville, Pa., had lost their 16-year-old daughter in the crash and had journeyed to Hall's D.C. office to find out why. Hall, arguably the least qualified and most political chair in NTSB history, surrounded himself with his director of research and engineering, legal adviser and two flight data recorder specialists.At the request of Don Nibert, Glen Schulze, a Flight Data Recorder expert, joined this group as well. For the record, the FDR is a device that records precisely what the plane is doing, microsecond by microsecond. If a mechanical problem had begun to unfold within the center wing tank, the Flight Data Recorder would have picked up clues as the event spread throughout the 747. The same holds true if the plane had been blasted by a missile warhead explosion. Clues would begin to appear on the Flight Data Recorder.
As the meeting unfolded, Schulze made a lengthy, highly technical presentation to the NTSB's top FDR experts. He paused briefly after explaining the first four of his five explanatory flip charts, looked the NTSB experts in the eye and challenged them boldly:
"Hard evidence extracted from the NTSB's own reports is consistent with the FBI and NTSB withholding the last 4 FL 800 FDR one second data blocks and over 3,000 data bits from the public."In a world with more honor, these would have been fighting words ...
Hall had little stomach for straight talk.
Brushing Hall's complaint aside, Schulze presented more hard evidence ...
Schulze contended that the NTSB withheld from the public the fact that the FDR has the precise time, to the second, that the FDR ceased recording data. But instead of sharing that data --- "too accurate" in the damning words of one NTSB expert [Grossi] --- the NTSB used FAA and Navy radar data to manipulate the numbers and regain the four seconds missing from the FDR ...
The NTSB experts presented no information to refute Schulze's factual presentation ...
The only means by which scientific testing and analysis can confirm or deny NTSB/FBI tampering with the FDR is to release the original FDR tape to an independent laboratory. Don Nibert asked Jim Hall to approve such an independent test. Hall asked for the request to be put in writing. It was.
More than six months have now passed since ...
The NTSB has "completely ignored and failed to respond to Mr. Nibert's perfectly legal and proper request as a FL 800 Family Member," Schulze recently revealed ...
See The Hull Thread's, "Missing Seconds."
See ARAP's "Analysis of Flight Data Recorder."